


We write to taste life twice

by Corin



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-28 20:05:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13911201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corin/pseuds/Corin
Summary: Krypton and Daxam couldn’t be more different, but they shared one special thing. People on both worlds knew who a soulmate was – a person you were linked with, a person who literally shared your skin. But with the destruction of both planets, one could think that the blessing of having a soulmate was forever lost …but was it really?Or just a Soulmate AU where anything you write on your skin also appears on the skin of your soulmate.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This is my first fic ever (ok, maybe not exactly, but I haven't written anything in ages), so more or less I have no idea what I’m doing, but I hope you’ll enjoy it ^^ I’m not sure wheather I’ll continue or just leave it as a oneshot, I guess we shall wait and see.
> 
> (this fic can be also found on tumblr, but since I finally got an AO3 account, I decided to post it here too :))

Her mother always told her stories about soulmates.

When Kara was a child, she knew everything about it. She knew about the messages written on the skin. She knew that the bond was not completely formed until both people were at least fifteen. She knew how a family member couldn’t be your soulmate. She knew that when the letters begin to appear, you will feel a funny tingle, annoying in any other circumstances, but in this case it will make your heart feel warm and fuzzy.

One thing, however, Kara didn’t know.

She had no idea how it is to be slowly consumed by emptiness, when despite dozens of messages scrawled on your skin, you never get an answer.

Krypton was destroyed, but a small part of her still had hope that she wasn’t the last of her kind. Well, one of two, but with her cousin it was different - he was different. Raised here on Earth, he will never truly understand what they’ve lost.

Even though, she still had hope when she first dared to write something on her skin. A shy “hello” on the left forearm on the day of her fifteenth Earth birthday.  
She had it when she was to go to collage, and on the eve of her departure from the house she grew to call home, she drew a smiling sun in the middle of her left hand.  
She even had it when she was twenty-one, after all it was a happy number here on Earth, and she wrote in large, capital letters, “Are you there?”

However, the answer never came. And Kara understood that this one hope she had to let go.

 

*~*~*

 

Mon-El had heard about soulmates, but to be honest, he never really cared.

After all, why worry about one man or woman, who may or may not be out there somewhere, when you can live here and now? Have fun and enjoy life? True, he happened to write something a few times just to see if there really was someone on the other side of this strange bond, but even after long periods of staring at the place marked with his simple and firm letters, nothing ever appeared back.

Yes, Mon-El had heard about soulmates, but he assumed that he didn’t need one to be happy.

Sometimes walking around the palace he could see guardsmen whose uncovered arms were decorated with fancy marks or letters. Sometimes, before he fell into the arms of another woman, or before he drank the next drink, he wondered how it is that all these people have something that he doesn’t - he, the Prince of Daxam. His personal guard and friend used to say, that perhaps his soulmate had yet to reach the age of fifteen, but Mon-El wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. After all he was already twenty-seven - is it possible that his soulmate was still a kid? No, it didn’t make sense.

Soon, however, his entire world would make no sense.

Daxam was turning into ruin, and he was supposed to fly away, watching its fall.

For the first time he felt that such pain, such responsibility is too much for one person. For the first time he dreamed to be able to just share it with someone. His desires, however, didn’t matter. Because in the end he had to leave his soulmate to die.

 

*~*~*

 

“Are you okay? Today was a bit crazy.”

“You mean more crazy than our regular crazy?”

Alex’s laugh, despite being distorted by the phone’s loudspeaker, immediately improved Kara’s mood. The day turned out to be a whole lot different than what she had expected. Her thoughts involuntarily wandered to the inhabitant of Daxam, the twin planet of Krypton just with a lot worse reputation, who literally turned her world upside down today. She always dreamed of meeting someone similar to her, but now? She wasn’t really sure what to think of it.

“But seriously Kara, are you okay?”

“I’m Supergirl, I’m always okay.” Maybe it wasn’t quite true, but Kara didn’t want to worry Alex with her doubts. The feud between Krypton and Daxam was a thing of the past. For years Earth was her new home, and now perhaps it can become one for Mon-El too. _Maybe, just maybe, it is time to bury the hatchet once and for all?_ She also couldn’t deny, that even though all her instincts were telling her otherwise, some inexplicable part of her wanted to lower her guard with him.

“I believe you. For now. But if you need anything, just call.”

“Sure thing. See you tomorrow.” Kara smiled at Alex’s overprotectiveness, but she had to admit that her big-sister senses were as sharp as ever. Facing a piece of her past that she didn’t expect to see ever again really threw her off balance.

With a sigh, Kara went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of red wine. It’s true that she couldn’t get drunk with any earthly alcohol, but that wasn’t what she wanted in the first place. The taste of wine itself, combined with a comfortable sofa and a soft blanket was relaxation in its purest form. However as she reached for a glass, she felt _it_. A strange tingle on her left forearm, difficult to really describe in words. Even so, it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. Far from it, to be honest.

Kara absently turned her hand to look what was causing the tingling…

The glass fell to the floor with a loud crash, shattering into pieces, Kara, however, didn’t seem to even notice. Enchanted, she stared at the spot that just a moment before had been completely clean and now had three words written in a black pen.

 

*~*~*

 

Mon-El stretched on a bed in his temporary room in the DEO and tried to sort out everything that he had learned today. From the moment he woke up things were so crazy. And it didn’t help that his memories of those first moments were hazy at best.

He remembered confusion, chaos, panic. Then those blue eyes, shining like comets in the night sky. And again uncertainty, fear, dread.

He ran ahead and the only thing he thought about was returning home. He had to come back. The last time he saw it, everything was falling apart, but there had to be a way to fix it. There must be someone who would tell him what to do next.

In the end it turned out that there is no one like that.

There is no one. Period.

Nobody but that girl from Krypton. The fate really had a wicked sense of humor.

The storm of thoughts in his head wouldn’t allow him to fall asleep, so as a distraction he looked around the room. His eyes were instantly drawn to a desk and a pen lying on it. He stared at it thoughtfully for a moment, then finally came over and took it in his hand.

In truth, he didn’t know what was driving him at that time. Confusion? Or maybe, quite the contrary, it was a moment of clarity? He wasn’t sure why he was doing this - in the end he had told himself all his life that he didn’t need a soulmate. Now it turned out that his planet was destroyed years ago, so all the more he shouldn’t let himself hope… still, rationality be damned.

Mon-El gently readjusted his hold on the pen remembering about his strange new abilities and wrote three simple words on his left hand.

“Are you there?”

The same three words that a lonely Kryptonian girl wrote on her palm years ago. The same words that remained unanswered and made her lose hope for the first time in her life.

Just like her that time, Mon-El stubbornly stared at his arm. _If you are somewhere out there, please. Please answer. I don’t need anything else. Just answer._ He chanted in his mind, but as the minutes passed and nothing appeared on his skin, he let out a bitter laugh.

_So it really was wishful thinking, huh?_

After all, what did he expect? As dead planets remain barren, dead people remain silent.

But when he reached out to rub off the lonely inscription that seemed to laugh at his moment of weakness, he felt a tingling sensation.

Before he had time to consider it, right in front of him the letters began to appear out of nowhere just under his own writing. He jumped up in surprise, knocking over his chair. It was pure magic. He didn’t know what else to call it. Yet he couldn’t stop staring.

The new handwriting adorning his skin was elegant. He touched the fresh letters with reverence as the person on the other side put a dot at the end of a very short sentence. Mon-El smiled, noticing that it was not as much a dot as a small circle.

The sentence itself was, well, hardly a sentence - in the end it consisted only of two words. These two words, however, meant so much more.

They were light in the dark. A sense of belonging.

These two words were beginning of something new.

“I am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick clarification - I have no idea how old is Mon-El in the show. I couldn't find the info anywhere, so I went with 24 (Kara is 25 in the present). Just bear with me here I guess? :)
> 
> Edit: Thanks to Madelie now I know that Mon-El is 27 in canon, so I changed it accordingly. Thanks once more for the information!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me tell you this - I am absolutely blown away by the response to this fic! Like, I literally don't know what to say. You guys are amazing! Even in my wildest dreams I didn't think I would actually be asked to write more and... well... after so many kind words I couldn’t just abandon this story, could I? :) I can't say how often I will update and how long this fic will be, but I hope I can do something cool with this idea. For now: enjoy~!

When Mon-El woke up, for the first few seconds he had no idea where he was. A plain room, a definitely too hard bed, a noise of ventilation, bits and pieces of unintelligible conversations coming from behind the door. It wasn't his home and that realization caused the memories of yesterday's events to slowly come back to him. One in particular was quick to resurface from the fog still clouding his mind. 

With uncertainty, he raised his left hand and looked at it. The skin was marked with the inscription he wrote there last night, the answer, however, was nowhere to be seen. 

 _Did I_ _imagine_ _it all?_    
   
After a moment the man closed his eyes and covered them with his forearm. Enveloped in darkness he let his mind wander once more to that moment when the words written by a stranger's hand emerged from nothingness.   
   
_No._ _It was real._    
   
After so many years of thinking that he's alone, it turned out that there really was someone on the other side... but it also meant that this person had to wash off his own words first thing in the morning. 

Mon-El jumped out of bed with a new energy. 

Just knowing that somewhere out there lives another Daxamite was enough for him. At least for now. He also had no intention of causing this person additional trouble, so he quickly searched through the nearby locker, grabbed a change of clothes, definitely something long-sleeved, and marched toward the bathroom. 

He didn't know if writing on your skin was something normal on this planet, but for now keeping a low profile seemed like a reasonable choice. And so did getting rid of any evidence of a successful communication with his countrymen.   
   
Maybe he agreed to a temporary ceasefire with this Kryptonian girl, but Mon-El had no real reason to trust these people just yet.   
   
The decision was final: his soulmate, whoever he or she was, will have to remain his secret.

 

*~*~* 

 

Kara flew into the DEO office like a woman on a mission. The springy step and the energy radiating from every pore of her being were effectively preventing still sleepy employees from getting in her way. 

She needed to see Alex and luckily finding the said woman has not proved too difficult. She sat by the biggest pile of documents and probably did work for at least ten other people. Seeing Kara marching toward her clearly surprised her and indicated that she definitely didn't expect to meet her sister so early in the day. 

"Kara? Shouldn't you be at CatCo?" 

The alien girl quickly dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand. 

"I still have time, but that's not important. We have to talk!" Although she tried to restrain the enthusiasm, anyone who had eyes could see that by saying "we have to talk," she meant "now."

Alex frowned, but wasn't going to argue. At least till she knew what was going on with her sister. She was nearly bouncing by her desk, for God's sake, and that's not something that happened every day! 

"Okay. Talk." 

Kara cast a conspiratorial glance over her shoulder, but seeing that they were alone, she attacked the other woman with a radiant smile. 

"Look!" She quickly rolled up the sleeve and put her arm under Alex's nose, but the other woman's reaction did not meet her expectations. Agent's frown only deepened. 

"Okaaaay... What am I looking at exactly?" Alex tried. 

Kara looked at her own hand in confusion - the skin that not so long ago was adorned by a few words written in a black pen, now appeared as clean as one can be. 

The Kryptonian groaned in frustration and plopped down on a nearby chair.  

"So? Will you tell me what was I supposed to see?" Probed her human sister. 

Supergirl, suddenly not feeling so super, sighed and met Alex's gaze. 

"A have a soulmate," she blurted. 

A full force of these words hit Kara the moment she finally spoke them out loud. When she woke up in the morning, yesterday's evening seemed like a dream, but the inscriptions decorating her skin were telling an entire different story. It all really happened. After years of silence, someone finally spoke. 

"Wait. A soulmate?" 

"Remember how I told you when we were kids that on Krypton we are bound to share skin with another person?" 

The light of understanding slowly lit in Alex's eyes. 

"Yeah... Yeah, you did! You said that if one person writes something on their skin, the same words will appear on the skin of another person." She shook her head in disbelief. "I always thought it was some Kryptonian fairy tale. You're saying it was all true?" 

Leave it to Alex to dismiss something, because it was too supernatural for her scientific mind. Kara couldn't help, but smile with fondness – they were strange siblings indeed. 

"It's true. And yesterday someone wrote to me." 

"Wow, that's... amazing." Alex honestly admitted, though it didn't take long for her eyes to narrow in suspicion. "But where do I fit in in all of this?" 

"Yeah, the thing is," Kara walked over to the agent's desk again and lowered her voice, "I thought that maybe you could help me find this person." 

Alex blinked, confused once more. 

"Can't you just ask who he or she is? Or to meet?" 

"No!" Supergirl took a step back in horror. "Definitely not." 

"Why?" 

"For starters, asking something like that right after discovering the bond is treated as... tactless," she grumbled. "And besides, if I ask him who he is, he will ask who I am, and I can't tell him the truth. If I introduce myself as Kara Danvers, I will reveal that I'm an alien from Krypton, and that's the same as announcing that I'm Supergirl!" 

"'Him?'" Alex lifted an eyebrow. "How do you know it's a 'he'?" 

"Just a gut feeling." Kara waved her off. "But that's not important! What is important is you helping me out. I want to find him, you know, outside of the bond thing, for example using DEO satellites?" Alex prompted her to continue. "I thought that since Mon-El appeared so long after the destruction of our planets, maybe someone else came to Earth alongside him?" 

The agent thought about the plan for a moment and concluded that it sounded surprisingly reasonable. 

"It could be done." she nodded, but something else came to her mind. "Hey, but what about Mon-El himself?"   
   
"What?!" Kara shrieked with wide eyes.   
   
"Think about it. The same day he appeared, suddenly you find your soulmate - isn't it a bit too much for a coincidence?"   
   
"No no no, impossible." The alien girl dismissed the idea, her face sour as if she was forced to eat a lemon. "As far as I know Daxam had soulmates too, but Daxamites are bound to Daxamites and Kryptonians are bound to Kryptonians. There are absolutely no records in the history of a cross-link between the two." 

 _There are a lot of things that shouldn't be possible_ , Alex thought, but decided not to voice it. It was clearly a touchy subject for Kara and she actually was the one more informed on this topic out of the two of them. 

"Okay." 

"Really?" The alien girl instantly beamed at her sister. 

"Really. I'll see what I can do, just give me a day or two," the agent nodded and was rewarded with a big hug. 

"I love you, you're the best!" 

"I know," Alex chuckled and shooed her away. "Now go! You'll be late for work." 

Kara ran to the exit, but couldn't stop from making one last glance at her arm – the skin under the sleeve was still clean.  

She realized in surprise that she was actually disappointed. 

It took one day and she was already attached to this mysterious person on the other side of the bond. The woman wanted to laugh at herself. 

However before she could do so, the reality reminded her that walking without looking where you're going was a very bad idea. 

With full force she bumped into a man who just came out of a side corridor. Reflexively, she reached out to catch him, the worst case scenarios immediately playing in her mind. By the Rao, what if she just hurt somebody? However that wasn't the case. She squealed in surprise when the other person actually grabbed her by the outstretched forearm, preventing them from falling over. 

"Oh." A single syllable left her mouth when she finally noticed who was her victim-slash-savior. 

Mon-El. 

"Hi," he said, just as surprised as she was. "Are you ok?" 

"Yes, everything's alright," she chuckled after a moment, realizing how strange it was to be asked that. 

Mon-El only frowned, clearly lost as to what was causing her mirth. 

"Did I say something funny?" 

"No, that's not it," she quickly reassured him. "It's just been a long time since someone asked me that. You know, usually it's me who's doing the asking," she bubbled. 

She saw how his eyes lit up when the realization what she meant hit him. 

"Because of the super strength thing, right?" 

Kara nodded. 

"If you were a normal person, what happened could have sent you straight to the hospital." 

"Well, then it's a good thing I'm not." 

They smiled at each other, but the conversating kind of died. It was also the moment when the two of them noticed they were still holding onto each other. They quickly let go, which caused even more awkwardness. 

"I-I need to go to work." Kara hated the nervous stutter that escaped her lips, but she couldn't help it. She wasn't used to casual chatters with aliens like her. And she definitely wasn't used to friendly Daxamites so early in the morning. She needed to get out. Right now. 

"Yeah," he immediately agreed. "Yeah, I need to go... somewhere... too." 

"Exactly. Bye." Before he could respond, Kara escaped past him and in seconds was soaring through the sky. 

 _Talk about awkward_ , she mentally groaned. 

Thinking that, her hand involuntarily went to her left forearm. She still felt the warmth radiating from the place where Mon-El caught her. 

To be honest, she wanted to get mad. Maybe it sounded silly, but that was her soulmate's spot and letting someone touch it felt too personal. However, to her surprise, anger didn't come. 

Instead, she felt a strange sense of peace. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this was pretty much a setup chapter, so not much happened, but I needed to start somewhere. More soulmates shenanigans coming in the next parts :)
> 
> Edit: What I learned after this chapted - I shouldn't post anything at 3 a.m. ^^" Now everything is proofread.


End file.
